Projects / 4/4/2024

Riverton Hotel

A complete system to speed up installation and grouting of ceramic tiles and mosaics in the spa area

Gothenburg

The Riverton Hotel, situated in the heart of Göteborg near the Göta Älv River, offers an ideal base for visitors keen on exploring the city's attractions. Mapei, a key contributor to the hotel's new spa area, provided crucial support in overcoming challenges encountered when preparing substrates and laying ceramic tiles and mosaics.

Exploring Göteborg: The Riverton Hotel Experience

The Riverton Hotel is located in the centre of Göteborg near the River Göta Älv, from which the city takes its name. Its position makes it the ideal place to stay for anyone wishing to explore the numerous attractions in what is, after Stockholm, the second most densely populated city in Sweden: the old centre in the Haga district, the restaurants and fish markets along the Rosenlund quayside, the elegant boutiques in Kungsgatan street, the Opera House and the Skansen Kronan fortress.

The hotel is a family run business and, since the start of the 2000’s, it has stood out for its welcoming style characterised by the particular attention paid to the wellbeing and relaxation of its guests. The reason why, for example, a new wellness centre was recently created inside the hotel featuring a swimming pool, a sauna with aromatherapy, a Turkish bath, sensorial showers and a relaxation area.

Mapei also took part in the completion of this new area by providing support to the team commissioned to carry out the work, which had to overcome various challenges. One of these was having to work within the city itself and, as a result, reduce as much as possible the impact of noise in the area and install the floor and wall coverings within a short timeframe.

To overcome this latter constraint Mapei AB, the Group’s Swedish subsidiary, proposed a complete system which enabled installation of the ceramic tiles and mosaics in the spa area to be completed very quickly.

The joints in the surfaces of the swimming pool and the walls of the spa covered with mosaics were grouted with KERAPOXY EASY DESIGN, a highly decorative, bacteriostatic and anti-acid epoxy mortar

Relaxation… rapidly

Before installing the ceramic tiles and mosaics, the substrates for the floors in the spa area, swimming pool and showers were waterproofed with MAPELASTIC cementitious elastic membrane reinforced with MAPENET 150 fibre glass mesh, while the control joints and corners between the horizontal and vertical surfaces were waterproofed with MAPEBAND EASY rubber tape.

The white version of ELASTORAPID two-component, highly deformable, non-slip, quick-setting and drying adhesive was used to bond 20x20 mm mosaic tiles on the surfaces of the swimming pool and on the walls of various areas of the spa.

ELASTORAPID was chosen for its capacity to guarantee a high bonding strength just 2-3 hours after application, thereby enabling floor and wall coverings to be put into service extremely quickly.

The 1200x1200 mm ceramic tiles in the entrance to the spa, on the other hand, were installed with ULTRALITE S2 (available on the international market as ULTRALITE S2 FLEX), a one-component, lightweight cementitious adhesive which, thanks to its very high yield and high level of adhesion to all substrates normally used in the building industry, is particularly suitable for installing large format tiles. The low viscosity of the ULTRALITE S2 FLEX mix also means it can be applied quickly and easily, making it particularly recommended where rapid set to foot times are required.

And again, to shorten the overall installation time, the joints in all the floor and wall coverings in the centre were grouted with ULTRACOLOR PLUS polymer-modified mortar, ideal for joints up to 20 mm wide. This product’s water repellence and high resistance to mould (thanks to BioBlock® technology) make it particularly suitable for use in areas in frequent contact with water, such as in the wellness area. And at the same time, because it is quick setting and drying, this product enabled a reduction in the waiting times before cleaning and finishing operations, while reducing the set to foot traffic time and the time before putting the wall and floor coverings into service.

The joints in the surfaces of the swimming pool and the walls of the spa covered with mosaics, on the other hand, were grouted with KERAPOXY EASY DESIGN, a two-component, highly versatile, bacteriostatic and anti-acid epoxy mortar. Because of its decorative effect, this product is particularly suitable for joints from 1 to 15 mm wide in surroundings, such as the spa in the Riverton Hotel, with a particular aesthetic impact.

ELASTORAPID quick-setting and drying adhesive was used to bond 20x20 mm mosaic tiles on the surfaces of the swimming pool.

The rapid product: ULTRACOLOR PLUS

High-performance, anti-efflorescence, quick-setting and drying polymer-modified mortar free from Portland cement with water-repellent DropEffect® and mould-resistant BioBlock® technology for grouting joints up to 20 mm wide, with very low emission of volatile organic compounds and fully offset Greenhouse Gas Emissions.